Pageants
Many
conflicts come up in life that can simply be solved by a competition that
results in a clear-cut winner. For
example, if two people were to argue over who was the fastest runner, all that they
would have to do is race against each other to end this controversy. For years, one of the biggest conflicts
arose when people attempted to determine who was the more attractive. Although beauty is an abstract concept (the
famous saying being that beauty is in the eye of the beholder), it doesn’t mean
that it can’t be judged through some sort of competition that would ultimately
reward one person as more attractive as a group of others.
In
this way, pageants serve a valuable function for society. Rather than have beautiful people fight each
other in a rage due to an inability to determine who’s the most attractive,
pageants are here to come up with a concrete conclusion. Although pageants do not necessarily have to
revolve around physical beauty, for the most part, they do.
The most famous beauty pageant is the Miss America Pageant, in which all
of the American states are represented by one of their own beauties. The contestants than compete in a number of
tasks that includes a talent competition, an eveningwear competition, and a
swimsuit competition. However, this isn’t
all about beauty but rather social justice concerns are tested. Each contestant has a cause and they get to tell
America their concerns, otherwise known as concerns that don’t get nearly as
much attention as the
Miss America Pageant.
On
a larger scale resides the famed Miss Universe Pageant. Although there is also a Miss Earth
Pageant, I believe that everybody
would agree that the universe is just a little bit more significant than the
earth, although the earth itself is magnificent. In the Miss Universe
Pageant, each country has a beauty
representing their nation in a competition that finally answers many a male quandary
of ”which country produces the sexiest women.”
Of course, beauty pageants don’t necessarily have to take such a large amount
of area space. There are often local
pageants that have competitions about who is the most beautiful person in
town. Additionally, there’s a street in
Wisconsin that has an unofficial beauty pageant to determine who is the most
beautiful person on that street.
Although the winner apparently doesn’t receive a prize, they do receive
bragging rights.
Beauty pageants also can be divided among age groups. As a result, it’s not only women who are able to receive
accolades for their beauty but also young girls. Junior beauty pageants are common, as are children beauty
pageants. Although children beauty
pageants freak me out a little bit, I can take solace in the Mr. Show sketch that parodied this
phenomenon by showcasing a pre-natal beauty pageant. Who knows, maybe this is actually the wave of the future.
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